Dangers of Fast Food

We all fall victim to the fast food drive-thu, some more than others, eating it every day. But do people really know how bad fast food is for them? Everyone has different reasons for eating fast food, some because of the convenience, some actually crave it, but few people truly realize just how unhealthy this food is for them. The article “Why You Should Avoid Fast Food at All Costs” written by Richard Stossel gives very eye-opening details as to where our food comes from and how it gets to our plates.

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Richard Stossel has written many articles, such as Overcoming arthritis naturally, Chi: The basis of True Health, Nutrition Secrets “They” Don’t Want You to Know, and The dangers of microwave radiation cannot be ignored. He has also extensively studied Chinese martial arts, nutrition, Chinese medicine, chi theory, and physics. Richard is very passionate about health and helping others to develop healthier lifestyles. He uses his research and studies to write very informative articles on issues he finds very important.

The author establishes logos by using shocking facts and statistics such as “Twenty years ago the standard number of cattle processed per hour in a typical meat packing plant was 175”, “Today the workers at many plants are required to kill up to 400 cattle per hour” (Stossel, 2009). Stossel is trying to make a point that these slaughter factories are working to fast, and to long of house, sometimes making mistakes, even getting body parts caught in the machinery, or workers even falling into the grinders.

Also because of the long hours the factory workers are required to work they make mistakes such as cutting the wrong parts of the animals, such as the bowels causing E-coli outbreaks. “Every day in the United States, roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a food borne disease, 900 are hospitalized and fourteen die”. According to the CDC. If roughly 200,000 people get sick every day, that’s about 1,400,000 every week that are sickened by some type of food borne illness. “Until 1997, about 75% of the cattle in the US were being fed livestock wastes, the rendered remains of dead sheep and cattle.

They were also fed millions of dead pets from animal shelters” (Stossel, 2009). Stossel uses this information to appeal to the emotion of the reader. This article is written for anyone who eats fast food, or pre packaged processed meals. The author is writing this to inform us of just how unhealthy all of this un-natural chemical filled food is for us. Although it is a very good and informative article the author did make a few mistakes, making him seem less credible. Such as, “They also allow the poultry to be fed to dead cattle” (Stossel, 2009).

This does not make sense because you can’t feel something that is dead. In this article Richard Stossel appealed to the emotion of the reader by scaring the reader away from eating these types of food. “With the terrible and inhumane way in which the animals themselves are treated which causes the meat to lose any of it’s health benefits, coupled with the contamination of the meat itself during processing, you now have a situation where this meat is not only providing very little nutrition or bio-energy, but it can be quite dangerous and deadly” (Stossel, 2009).

Stossel is describing the cruelty these animals endure before being slaughtered, frozen, and shipped off to fast food restaurants around the country for us to eat. He also explained that some of the animals that are even to sick and weak to walk to the slaughter are picked up with forklifts and carried. Many of these animals are sick from tumors, viruses, infections, some even have cancer throughout their bodies, says Stossel.

The workers at the slaughterhouses are trained to cut around the infections and cancers, but Stossel says “even the “uninfected” parts are so weakened of nutrients, oxygen, energy and life force that it is still unfit for human consumption” (Stossel, 2009). Richard Stossel doesn’t just tell us how bad the fast food industry is for us, he gives great suggestions oh how to improve our diets, which makes him seem more trustworthy. When enzymes are not busy digesting our last meal, they travel around the body dissolving tumors, killing bacteria, viruses and germs, absorbing dead tissues and rebuilding new ones along with strengthening the entire system” (Stossel, 2009), while making himself seem credible about what his is writing, he is also appealing to the emotions of some who would like to improve their health. The author goes on to tell us about how many of the foods that we eat are chemically enhanced for flavor, color, texture, and smell. Many of these chemicals are labeled as “natural Flavors” and the food is still sold as organic.

One of the companies that make these chemicals for our food, IFF (International Flavor and Fragrances), also makes many other tastes and smells. Such as toothpastes, mouthwashes, dishwashing detergents, floor waxes, shampoo, soaps, furniture polish, antacids, beer, frostings, said Stossel. The author uses pathos to describe the way the meat packing industry changes the color of the meat, If you have ever bought standard supermarket meats then you have probably noticed that the meat has a bright red “healthy” looking color to it.

Well that meat is not much better than your typical fast food meats. The bright red color is from the same kind of food coloring and chemical wizardry of sight and aroma as those used in the fast food industry to trick your senses into believing the meat is health and tasty. He describes the meat as being bright red and “healthy” looking, when it really is the chemicals that these companies add to the meat that make it look this way. This article, written by Richard Stossel had some very good examples of rhetorical appeal.

The use of statistics and quotations was a good appeal to logos. Thought the author did make a few mistakes in this article, he was very credible and knowledgeable about the topic. Stossel appealed to pathos by using vivid descriptions of the food that we eat, almost seeming to try to disgust the reader. Because of the great use of pathos, logos, and ethos, I myself will not be eating as much fast food as I once did before reading this article. Bibliography Stossel, R. (2009, January 06). Retrieved from Natural News: http://www. NaturalNews. com/025241_food_fast_meat. html